Commissioner's Statement on the Employment Situation News Release

Advance copies of this statement are made available to the press
under lock-up conditions with the explicit understanding that the
data are embargoed until 8:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.
Statement of
Keith Hall
Commissioner
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Friday, September 2, 2011
Nonfarm payroll employment was unchanged in August, and the
unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent. Average job growth over
the last 4 months has been markedly lower than during the first 4
months of the year. In August, employment changed little in most
major industries.
Health care added 30,000 jobs over the month, with most of
the gains occurring in ambulatory health care services and in
hospitals. In professional and business services, employment in
computer systems design and related services increased by 8,000.
Mining employment continued to trend up.
In the information sector, employment fell by 48,000 over
the month, largely reflecting a strike by 45,000
telecommunications workers.
Manufacturing employment was essentially unchanged in
August. For the past 4 months, manufacturing has added an average
of 14,000 jobs per month, compared with an average of 35,000 per
month for the first 4 months of the year.
Local government employment continued to trend down in
August. State government employment was little changed, despite
the return of an estimated 22,000 Minnesota state employees
following a partial government shutdown in July.
Average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm
payrolls declined by 3 cents in August to $23.09. This decline
followed an 11-cent gain in July. Over the past 12 months,
average hourly earnings have risen by 1.9 percent. From July
2010 to July 2011, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban
Consumers (CPI-U) increased by 3.6 percent.
Turning to measures from the survey of households, the
unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent in August, and has been
at or near that level since April. The number of unemployed
persons was little changed in August at 14 million.
The number of persons in the labor force rose over the
month, while the labor force participation rate was little
changed at 64.0 percent. The employment-population ratio, at
58.2 percent, also was little changed. Among the employed, those
working part time for economic reasons rose by 430,000, to 8.8
million, in August.
In summary, both nonfarm employment and the unemployment
rate were unchanged over the month. Employment in most major
industries showed little change.